The vaulted Mycenaean tomb at Arno, Marathon: the impressive discoveries

When someone is discussing about the antiquities of Marathon, it is the tomb of the Marathon warriors and the Battle of Marathon that took place at the region in 5th century BC that comes to most people’s mind. However, the archaeological excavation has proven that the human presence at Marathon extends many centuries earlier, and this is one of the reasons why this municipality has great archaeological interest!

Feature stories in “We Love Marathon” have covered the regions of Vrana and Plasi, that date back in the Bronze Age. Today’s feature story is about the Mycenaean Tomb at the region Arnos, which also dates in the Bronze Age, and more specifically in 1450-1380 B.C., meaning the peak of the period which has been called Mycenaean by the archaeologists. It is located 400m. southeast the Tombs’ cemetery in the Vranas valley and it is one of the most impressive Mycenaean vaulted tombs in Greece.

The entrance of the vaulted tomb.

The tomb was excavated during the 1933-35 by the emeritus professor of the University of Athens at that time, G. Sotiriades. The area in which it was found belonged to a local woman, Evanthia Michael, and before the excavation oat, wheat, barley and tobacco were cultivated there.

It is a tomb made out of stone with vaulted roof and diameter 7m., which had been underground and covered in dirt from the age of its construction. The dead people that it housed in its interior were buried in two small holes of rectangle shape. The architectural style of the building is distinctive of the Mycenaean period. The size of the monument and the high level of difficulty in the construction of a vaulted roof show that those who built the tomb were not simple, laypeople, but individuals who owned wealth and social status.

The golden goblet, that is housed in the National Archaeological Museum today.

Inside the tomb a golden goblet was also found, that is housed in the National Archaeological Museum today.

The tomb’s interior. Two pit graves are shown that were detected in its interior.

In order for someone to reach the entrance of a Mycenaean vaulted tomb, they had to pass a small burial corridor that is called “dromos”. In the tomb’s “dromos” at Arno, an unusual discovery was made that matches the unique identity of the graves’ owners: the skeletons of two horses, carefully placed to be leaning on one side. Owning horses demanded expenses and time, so it was a sign of social and financial status.

In the tomb’s “dromos” at Arno, an unusual discovery was found that matches the unique identity of the graves’ owners: the skeletons of two horses, carefully placed to be leaning on one side.

G. Sotiriades mentions that many coals and burnt bones were found in the tomb’s interior, which shows that there had been offerings to the dead or to a god in the grave.

The excavations began in 1935 and the monument was reconstructed in 1958. It is a pity that such an important monument remains closed to the public, something that is not going to change anytime soon because ever since1935,the necessary expropriations have not yet been completed.

Vasiliki Zygouraki

Archaeology Student NKUA

Translator: Konstantina Pollali

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Bibliography: Petrakos B. 1995,.Marathon:Archaeological guide, 63-64.

Steinhauer G. 2009. Marathon and the Archaeological Museum, 73-74.

Rautopoulou S. 2020. “Georgios Sotiriades and the vaulted tomb at Arno, Marathon”. Series of Monographs AURA 4,4th Volume: Kydalimos. Hononary Volume for Professor Georgios Styl.Korre, 343-351.

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